Public Policy

  • June 03, 2024

    Iowa Says State Immigration Law Is Constitutionally Sound

    Iowa has urged a federal judge to shoot down attempts to block a new state immigration law set to take effect July 1 empowering state officials to arrest noncitizens who were previously deported, saying it doesn't usurp federal immigration authority.

  • June 03, 2024

    Court Tosses Challenge To Wash. Pot Licensure Plan

    A Washington federal judge has tossed a challenge to the residency restrictions of the state's cannabis social equity program, saying that the dormant commerce clause argument advanced by an out-of-state litigant is unpersuasive since pot is federally illegal.

  • June 03, 2024

    Sens. Say DOD Risks Security With Reliance On Microsoft

    Lawmakers told the U.S. Department of Defense that they want information on a reported plan to require an expensive Microsoft software upgrade for department components, expressing concern the Pentagon will risk security by increasing dependence on the technology company.

  • June 03, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Delaware's Court of Chancery pushed out tons of decisions last week, along with a second round of new rules and letters of concern over pending changes to the state's corporate law code. The court's docket was as busy as ever, with new cases involving Tesla CEO Elon Musk, FTX cryptocurrency claims, and more. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Chancery Court.

  • June 03, 2024

    FERC Tells Justices Not To Review Rule Passed By Deadlock

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb a Third Circuit decision upholding an electricity market rule change that took effect despite a commissioner deadlock, arguing the lower court got it right and that any market upheaval concerns are unfounded.

  • June 03, 2024

    States Say Biden Admin's LNG Export Pause Is Actually A Ban

    A coalition of Republican-led states is urging a Louisiana federal court not to toss its lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's pause on reviewing applications to export liquefied natural gas to countries without free trade agreements, saying the pause effectively amounts to a ban because no timeline is provided.

  • June 03, 2024

    Conn. City Settles Suits Over Fatal Rooming House Fire

    The city of New Haven, Connecticut, has settled lawsuits by the families of two tenants who died attempting to rescue others from a 2019 house fire after officials failed to inspect and vacate the two-story house where 20 people were living, the estates' attorneys have confirmed.  

  • June 03, 2024

    African Gov'ts Made Big Gains From Data Swaps In 2023

    African tax authorities made huge headway last year in using the international standard for exchange of information on request to find additional revenues of €2.2 billion ($2.4 billion), which is more than over the past 13 years combined, the OECD reported Monday.

  • June 03, 2024

    Ga. Appeals Court May Hear Trump-Willis DQ Fight On Oct. 4

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has set a tentative date of Oct. 4 to hear arguments from former President Donald Trump's lawyers that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from his election interference case over her personal relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case.

  • June 03, 2024

    House COVID Panel Questions Fauci Over Pandemic Origins

    Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease responsible for overseeing the pandemic response, was pressed by a U.S. House COVID-19 panel Monday about recent allegations that a senior official tried to evade open records laws regarding the origins of the pandemic.

  • June 03, 2024

    DC Settles Tax Fraud Suit Against Tech Co. Founder For $40M

    The District of Columbia will collect $40 million from the founder of a technology and bitcoin holding company to settle a whistleblower complaint that alleged tax fraud, the district's attorney general said Monday.

  • June 03, 2024

    Mich. High Court Keeps $15 Min. Wage Proposal Off Ballot

    An initiative to raise the hourly minimum wage in Michigan to $15 by 2027 will stay off the 2024 ballot, the state Supreme Court ruled, turning down a group's bid to force the state canvassers board to certify the proposal.

  • June 03, 2024

    Senate To Vote On Right To Contraception

    The Senate will vote later this week on a bill to codify a statutory right to contraception, ahead of the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

  • June 03, 2024

    Atty May Face Suspension In State Street Billing Row

    A Massachusetts disciplinary committee has recommended a six-month suspension for the former managing partner of Thornton Law Firm LLP for his alleged neglect in signing an inflated attorney fees declaration in a class action against State Street.

  • June 03, 2024

    CFPB Unveils Registry To Track Nonbank 'Repeat Offenders'

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday finalized plans to begin centrally tracking court and regulatory enforcement orders against nonbank financial firms, issuing a rule that will create a public registry intended to help shine a light on companies that have recurring run-ins with authorities.

  • June 03, 2024

    Chamber Backs Insurers' Suit To Block DOL Fiduciary Rule

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged a Texas federal judge to block recently finalized regulations by the U.S. Department of Labor that expands who is considered a fiduciary under federal benefits law, arguing that the new rule will unnecessarily increase costs for consumers.

  • June 03, 2024

    TIAA Can't Escape Retirees' Rollover Advice Fee Suit

    A New York federal judge refused to toss retirees' suit alleging the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America violated federal benefits law by coercing them into transferring their assets into higher-fee managed accounts, finding the retirees' new theory of liability should proceed to discovery.

  • June 03, 2024

    Minn. Tax Court Lowers Home Value Over Native Burial Mound

    The valuation of a lakeside parcel including a legally protected Native American burial mound must be lowered because a split of the property as envisioned by assessors would have been unlikely to gain the needed approvals, the Minnesota Tax Court said.

  • June 03, 2024

    Justices Won't Review Migrant Harboring Convictions

    The U.S. Supreme Court won't review a Kentucky federal jury's verdict convicting two restaurateurs on four counts of harboring unauthorized immigrants, shutting down those business owners' arguments they were not intentionally hiding the migrants from the government.

  • June 03, 2024

    CORRECTED: Justices Delay Cert Decision On OSHA Standard Setting

    The U.S. Supreme Court is holding off on deciding if it will review a split decision from the Sixth Circuit that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's authority to set workplace safety standards is constitutional, a ruling that the lower federal appellate court declined to rehear in December.

  • June 01, 2024

    Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide

    As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.

  • May 31, 2024

    Fiji Water Beats $2M Breach-Of-Contract Verdict On Appeal

    California appellate justices on Thursday dismissed Carolina Beverage's $2 million jury win in a contract case accusing Fiji Water of violating their distribution deal by selling Fiji directly to retailers, finding that the agreement wasn't constructively terminated because Carolina Beverage continued to deliver Fiji products to retailers, pursuant to their contract.

  • May 31, 2024

    Monsanto PCB Plaintiffs Want $185M Wash. Win Restored

    A group of public school teachers is urging the Washington State Supreme Court to review a state appellate court decision overturning their $185 million win in a PCB tort against Monsanto, contending the ruling stifles plaintiffs' rights in cases stemming from the same school site and other product liability litigation.

  • May 31, 2024

    'You Didn't Do It': Antitrust Judge Rips Apple's Doc Production

    A California federal judge deciding whether Apple complied with her ban on App Store anti-steering rules ordered Apple for a second time Friday to produce documents, telling Apple's counsel "the whole point" is to get documents relevant to Apple's decision-making regarding its new 27% fee "and you didn't do it."

  • May 31, 2024

    Colo. AI Bias Law Lays 'Foundation' For New State Patchwork

    Colorado's trailblazing legislation for regulating high-risk uses of artificial intelligence is likely to inspire other states to act, although a host of "reservations" about the measure from advocates and even Colorado's governor are likely to result in a fragmented national landscape as other states' legislatures use the measure as a launching point rather than a model they'd want to fully replicate. 

Expert Analysis

  • CFPB Reality Check: Video Game Cash Is Still Money

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report examining payments within online video games indicates that financial services offered within the game marketplace are quickly evolving to the point where they are indistinguishable from traditional financial services subject to regulation, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 5 Takeaways From FDA's Biosimilars Promotion Guidance

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expands upon other recent efforts to clarify expectations for biosimilar and interchangeable labeling, highlighting a number of potential missteps that could draw attention from regulators, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • The Legal Issues Raised In Minn. Rate Exportation Opt-Out Bill

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    A recent Minnesota House bill would amend state law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption and introduce several legal gray areas if passed, including issues regarding loan location, rates on credit card loans and values of state charters, says Karen Grandstrand at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • Rebuttal

    Time For Congress To Let Qualified Older Pilots Keep Flying

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    While a previous Law360 guest article affirmed the current law requiring airline pilots to retire at age 65, the facts suggest that the pilots, their unions, the airlines and the flying public will all benefit if Congress allows experienced, medically qualified aviators to stay in the cockpit, say Allen Baker and Bo Ellis at Let Experienced Pilots Fly.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • 8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

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    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Best Practices For Space Security In Our Connected World

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    NASA's recently published space security guide is another indication that cyber-resilience has become a global theme for the space and satellite sector, as well as a useful reference for companies and organizations reviewing their cybersecurity frameworks or looking to partner with the U.S. agency, says Hayley Blyth at Bird & Bird.

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